About time... Insurance pays up.

[maxamuus]

This year in my annual enrollment for insurance i noticed my insurance would pay for hearing aids. I was a little shocked. I went with a more pricey plan in that they would pay more for new "ears" for me.

I was skeptical. I made the appointment and was fitted with Oticon Agils with all the trimmings at the local hospital. Bill was almost 7,000 dollars. I WAS SWEATING bullets.

Insurance paid, and my copay was 246 dollars.

I am so greatful, these make such a HUGE difference in my life. This is how it should be. My last hearing aids i had to pay out of pocket.

This is how it should be. We should be able to hear and not take out loans or borrow to just to be like everyone else.

[Cosmo]

What insurance do you have. That is great.

[seb]

The only problem I see with insurance Co's paying for HA's is they will have to keep what they will pay from the provider inorder to keep them from charging basically what the insurance will cover for the aids. A friend has HA coverage that will pay up to $10,000 every 3 years and when he went to get his Bicross his audiologist charged the insurance Co. $9,800. I would guess if the audi didn't know what the amount that the coverage would be, he would have charged a lot less. Most audi's are probably more honest than this one but you would have to have safe guards in place to keep over charging to a minimum.

[Cosmo]

I would agree (and hope) that we are more honest than that. That is stealing!

[simon]

Originally Posted by seb

The only problem I see with insurance Co's paying for HA's is they will have to keep what they will pay from the provider inorder to keep them from charging basically what the insurance will cover for the aids. A friend has HA coverage that will pay up to $10,000 every 3 years and when he went to get his Bicross his audiologist charged the insurance Co. $9,800. I would guess if the audi didn't know what the amount that the coverage would be, he would have charged a lot less. Most audi's are probably more honest than this one but you would have to have safe guards in place to keep over charging to a minimum.

Probably why very few health insurances cover hearing aids in the first place.

[seb]

Very true but what I was saying if they do cover HA's it would be smart not to let the audiologist know how much is covered until they give you a price, inorder to keep the unscrupulous ones from milking the insurance co. for the amount covered or $9,800 for maybe $4,500 worth of HA's. Hospitals rip off insurance co's all the time.

[DocAudio]

That is straight-up insurance fraud and if you have any professional who charges different prices based on the insurance coverage I'd report them.

NO hearing aid is worth that much money, let alone a Bi-CROS which is, technically, only one hearing aid.

[Maureen]

I have insurance coverage that is stated at $2800 (once every three years). When I got my son's aids I wrote a check for the total minus the $2800 as they said they would bill directly to insurance. Later I was checking my insurance website and saw that they only paid $1400. I was never asked for more from the audi. Sometimes I guess they have agreed amounts that are less than requested amounts. When I called insurance to ask she said something about reasonable and customary rates and that it was considered paid in full.

[DocAudio]

Yes, this is why many audiologists are no longer contracted providers with insurance companies. Often times the amount they pay hardly even covers the actual cost of the hearing aid and if under contract to accept that amount, the professional is unable to bill you for the difference. One office I worked at received just around $250 for a hearing aid that cost us over 5 times that amount. It was for a child and the physician didn't feel comfortable asking for the hearing aid back so we considered it a lesson learned and now don't dispense anything until the insurance has paid.

[seb]

I told my friend with the Bi-Cros to turn in the audiologist but he wouldn't do it, fearing he would be blackballed and not be able to get the HA adjusted or serviced. He also thought the insurance co would realize he was billed to much but they never caught on.